When he recognized himself in a photo following an article about “all hipsters looking the same,” a hipster got furious. He sent an angry email to MIT Technology Review, but little did he know that he would only prove the theory of the article. When the MIT journal’s editors checked the image license, it turned out that the photo showed a totally different hipster.

It might come as a bit of a sad but good move for the company’s future. Everybody wants to see GoPro succeed and again become the company they once were, but things haven’t been looking great. Now, a new deal with Jabil Inc. may help them to keep the cash coming in and keep creating great action camera tech.

Have you already been to India and photographed Taj Mahal and other famous monuments? If you haven’t, from now on you may need a license to do it. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is changing their photography policy, and they will soon require photographers to be licensed if they want to operate commercially in India’s protected monuments.

Unlike the Swiss village that banned photography, this isn’t a PR trick. The reason for this move by ASI is to prevent freelance photographers from “pestering” the visitors who want to take photos.

Nobody likes having their creative content stolen, and everybody wants to be paid for their work.

While file sharing has altered the power dynamic of the music industry – the music industry did successfully blow up Napster (if you’re under 30 you probably don’t recognize the name Napster – but its rise and fall was a big deal in the evolving world of copyright as the internet gained popularity).

Facing a similar fate at the hands of film studios and TV networks, YouTube initiated their “matched third-party content” system – which automatically identifies copyright infringement of both video and audio content, and automatically restricts or blocks content that has been distributed without a valid license from the copyright owner.

But, what is really interesting about YouTube’s “matched third-party content” system is that copyright owners can monetize their content when it is distributed by other users.

Journalism and photography are the last outlets of rampant online distribution without compensation – but a YouTube style “matched content” system could be a very simple way for journalists and photographers to finally be paid their fair share for the reproduction and use of their work.

As one of the first external Chromecast photography partners, 500px integration will bring our community into 20 million+ Chromecast users’ homes today, giving them the ability to display a curated collection of featured 500px photos on their high-definition TVs, and discover the photographers who took them through the attribution links.

However, there are two sides to this story.

On one hand, HD TVs are essentially just another digital screen (does anyone still actually watch “TV” on a TV?), so extending the 500px collection to TV screens is a powerful extension of the reach of the 500px community – from computer screens, to mobile devices to tablets to TVs.

On the other hand, Google is selling Chromecast hardware for $45 a pop and streaming copyrighted creative content to their users – with no monetary compensation for content creators.

To better explain the arrangement and what it means for photographers and 500px users, DIYPhotography.net presents the following exclusive interview with Nuno Silva the Director of Content and Marketplace at 500px:

In an announcement made on the camera maker’s website, GoPro shared it’s latest venture content licensing portal. GoPro says the service is geared towards “high production value content” which they hope will also eliminate “the pain points creative professionals have when sourcing content by helping them clear copyrights and likeness rights”. [Read More…]

While Microsoft and Canon have been known to partner up in the past, this time around the situation looks pretty different. There’s a number of reasons this agreement took place, and the top possibilities revolve around the mobile industry. Microsoft and Canon may not have disclosed the terms of the agreement, but they did mention that “certain digital imaging and mobile consumer products have been included in the agreement.”

With Microsoft’s recent business ventures with Nokia, the patent agreement may very well be the beginning of an involvement by Canon in Nokia’s Windows Phone line. With how heavily focused the mobile company is on its smartphone cameras in the Lumia line, Canon would be a great company to get support from.

I’ve always been very detail-oriented. That might be why I get so frustrated when I hear photographers using important terminology incorrectly– particularly when it comes to terminology that has a direct impact on their income and overall bottom line. I meet photographers who tell me they are editorial shooters when they are actually commercial photographers. I meet some who think they are commercial photographers when they are actually retail photographers. One photographer recently had the cojones to tell me, “I know I’m not really a commercial photographer, but it sounds cooler, so I go with it.”

WHAT?!?

When the shock of such an intensely ridiculous statement had finally worn off, I got to thinking about how the labels we use affect not only our views of ourselves and each other, but also on our clients’ opinions and expectations of us, as well as the licensing and use of our images.

Clinton Lofthouse is a Photographer, Retoucher and Digital Artist based in the United Kingdom, who specialises in creative retouching and composites. Proud 80's baby, reader of graphic novels and movie geek!
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